Thank you all for worrying about us this weekend. In case you haven't heard the whole story, I had typed it out on my blog and then just copied it all over here so that I didn't have to retype it.
Dad was a real trooper and we really appreciate all his help. Dirk was also helpful and did alot of driving for us although he had come all the way from Phoenix. I hope that they have caught up on their sleep now cause Lord knows they needed it! Even though our plans of coming home got botched on Sunday, I was kind of glad because we got to make up for the lost time from Friday and Saturday. It was nice to sit down and relax with a nice dinner knowing that we were all safe and sound!!
The past 4 days have been an absolute nightmare for us!! We left town at 3pm Friday afternoon and headed to Price to turn in a bid on a job. After that we headed over Indian Canyon to spend the weekend at my parents farm in Bridgeland. We had BIG plans for the weekend. We had brought our golf clubs and thought we might sneak over to Roosevelt on Saturday and golf a little. We also had a trailer with the boys' motorcycles. They were excited to ride all weekend with their cousins.
When we got to the top of Indian Canyon there was an older man standing on the side of the road waving his arms like crazy for us to stop. Den pulled the truck over and the guy said that his car had gotten stuck in the snow a couple miles up a different canyon and that his wife was still with the car and could we please come help them. I looked at Den and I could tell that he didn't really want to but he would never have said no. We had to drop the trailer at the side of the road and figured that we would be right back for it. YA RIGHT!!
The road was pretty snowy going in but we didnt have any problems until we saw the guy's car. Den got caught in a rut that we did not see under the snow and it pulled us off the side of the road into a big hole. Just great! It was about 5:30 when this all happened and we tried like heck to get the truck out but it started getting dark and so by 7 I called my Mom and asked her to find my Dad and let him know that we were in trouble and needed some help. My Dad called me at 8 and said that he was stuck too! He got himself dug out and got stuck a couple more times before he finally made it to us. I was starting to get worried because we didnt have any food or water for the kids. We had stopped in Helper and gotten them a treat and a drink about 4:30 but they had finished everything off by now. My Dad got our truck pulled out with no problem and then Den pulled out the German couple. We were all wanting to leave the canyon from the opposite direction we had come in because the snow was so bad. The German couple were driving a 4 runner and had made it clear in with very little problems until they had slid off in a rut when the snow got bad. They insisted on going out the way we had come in because it was only 3 miles versus the 30 that they had driven coming in from the other side. Den and my Dad were upset but finally gave in and got all the vehicles turned around and headed back to Indian Canyon. It was about 9:30 by this time and we knew we still had troubles ahead but were feeling pretty positive. Then it just seemed like we took turns getting stuck and pulling each other out for about half a mile. Den got stuck one last time and in the process of trying to get himself out, he blew out the front end in his truck and was now without 4 wheel drive. We threw our hands in the air and decided to try to get out in my Dad's truck and would come back the next day for Dennis' truck. The Germans were behind Den's truck and the road was so narrow that there was no way to pass so they chose to spend the night in their car. They said that they had plenty to keep them warm. We left the keys in our truck so they could get in there and keep warm if they were worried about running out of gas. For the next 2 hours we would drive a little then get stuck and have to dig out and throw dirt under the tires. We would get going again only to get stuck again. It was absolutely ridiculous! The boys were being so good but I knew they were tired and hungry. Finally at about midnight, we slid to the side of the road and got stuck with the truck leaning to the right in a very deep hole. This was the final straw because there is no way we could dig ourselves out of that one. We called a wrecker out of Price and they said they would be there in an hour. 1:00 came then 2:00 before we finally saw the headlights of the wrecker. We were so uncomfortable! The truck was leaning and I was on the downhill side so I had all 3 boys pushing against me. They had finally all fallen asleep which was good but it couldn't have been very restful.
We named the wrecker guys Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum right off the bat. They actually drove in there without chains so from 2:00 until about 3:30 we sat in the pickup and watched them attempt to chain up their truck. OMG what a joke they were. I swore that if I saw one more butt crack I was going to puke! Dennis had lost his patience by now and was getting very frustrated. My Dad was trying to be positive but was feeling like he should be doing something. I just wanted them to rest in the truck because they had worked so hard trying to get us out all night and had been completely frozen from the knees down. SO finally T Dee and T Dum finally hooked onto the truck at about 4:00 in the morning! We were not making any progress though because our truck was just pulling their truck down the hill. It took Dennis telling them to anchor their truck to the tree in front of them to make it work. (You'd think that if they spent every day doing this then they could have come up with that on their own!!) During this time, my brother had brought chains and other supplies and was waiting at the top to come in and get us if the idiots couldn't handle it. We finally got out and got back on the highway about 5:15 am. We were going to get the trailer we had dropped and head back to the farm for a couple hours until daylight. Dennis had told his friend to drop one of our work trucks at the mouth of the canyon on the bottom side so that he could use that to go in and pull his truck out in the morning. There was NO way that they were going to come in from the Indian Canyon side again even if it was a 30 mile drive to the truck instead of 3.
As if our night (and morning) hadn't been bad enough, when my brother stopped to hook onto our trailer we noticed that the straps had been undone and Weston's new motorcycle had been stolen!! He had just gotten it for his birthday in November and had only been able to ride it twice because of the winter and basketball season. I was soooo mad. I can't believe how horrible people are sometimes. It was obvious that it was a kid's bike. How can you feel good about stealing from a child! Didn't they realize that we must have had problems or the trailer wouldn't have been left there in the first place. Poor Weston just cried and cried. He kept asking me why someone would do that. What do you say to that? Dennis told him when we got home not to worry because whoever had stolen it had just bought themselves a one way ticket to hell! I only hope that they get what's coming to them someday!
We got back to the farm at 6am and the plan was for them to leave again at 7:30 in Dirk's truck and head back up to get our other truck that was waiting and hopefully get in and out with no problems. We had a little something to eat until 6:30 and then Dennis and my Dad tried to sleep for the hour they had left. It was horrible to watch them have to drag themselves up and back out the door. I felt so bad. I decided to "take one for the team" and not go to bed either because I felt so bad that they weren't getting to rest. We waited all day and did not see them until about 3:00 that afternoon but at least they were all home and so were all the pickups. Apparently, they didn't have any problems and had just put chains on the front tires of both trucks going in and then a set on the back tires of Den's truck that was stuck so that it could get out in 2 wheel drive. Den and my brother both reamed the Germans pretty bad and told them how STUPID they were for going on that road in the first place. Can you believe that they had actually had to open and close several private property gates to stay on that road. Wouldn't you get a clue and realize that you shouldn't be on that road and turn around? Geez...I don't know about some people.
That wasn't quite the end though....
Den locked the keys in the Dodge work truck which I had to drive home and he shattered the back window trying to break in.
Then.... we headed home about 2:30 Sunday afternoon and got completely shut down near Current Creek because a tanker had rolled over and the road was closed. The snow and the wind were so bad that the highway had just turned to a sheet of ice. Den was pulling the trailer with his now 2 wheel drive truck and I was behind him in the Dodge. When I hit the brakes to stop all I did was slide across the road. I was pretty freaked out that I would hit something. We decided that our weekend had been bad enough and that we didnt need any more problems so we were going to turn around and go back to the farm and come in Monday morning instead. My Mom was a little ways behind us so I called her and told her not to bother coming because we weren't getting through anyway. Den couldn't turn around with the trailer on the ice so he had to unhook from his truck and use the Dodge that I was driving just to get the trailer turned around and headed back to the farm.
We got back and cooked everyone a nice steak dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night.
We came in this morning and it was still snowy but nothing too bad.
Then to top off our weekend, we pull up to our house and 2/3 of our fence has blown down and is lying in pieces in our yard. I guess the winds were reported at nearly 80 mph in Lehi. We drove around the neighborhood and felt better when we realized that we weren't the only ones that had lost their fence.
OH....... what a wild weekend. I figure with the cost of the tow truck, the stolen motorcycle and the repair bill for the pickup, it was easily a $5000.00 to $6000.00 weekend for us. That doesn't even count having to replace the fence!
Can you believe all this happened to us just for trying to be Good Samaritans??
